


the scroll

by lmeden



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Kinkmeme, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-27
Updated: 2012-05-27
Packaged: 2017-11-06 02:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/413528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lmeden/pseuds/lmeden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Go, then. I see there will be no stopping you. But,” he says, halting Thor as he turns to return to his rooms and gather his things, fetch Mjolnir, “beware, my Son. Loki may be your brother, and we all may love him, but you must remember what he is.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	the scroll

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [the kinkmeme](http://avengerkink.livejournal.com/4305.html?thread=2587345#t2587345).

"Why have you called me to the Bifrost, Father?" Thor dislikes this place. It has been repaired in the days (eons) since his brother's fall, but Thor cannot help but see it as a shattered, contemptible creation. He does not wish to linger. 

"I have news," his Father says, staring out into the sparkling abyss of space. "From Heimdall."

This catches Thor's attention and he turns to look at his Father more directly. All he can see is the silver upon his bent head. "What has he seen?" Thor asks. 

His Father looks up, then, golden eye glittering. "Loki."

||

"Here you are," Tony says, unloading the pile of metal and that strange Midgardian construct called 'plastics' into Thor's hands. "You know, I'm not going to judge you for wanting to get kinky - alright, maybe I am because _wow_ Thor, that's your brother and I may be kinky but not _that_ -"

"Leave us," Thor says, cutting through him and unwilling to parse his words. He has always found Tony Stark to speak unnecessarily fast, but he is not in the mood to wade through the man's ramblings, which are normally meaningless as is. He turns to let his burden clatter onto a small table and pushes the door closed.

Tony resists, trying to peer into the room, but Thor's strength is too much for him. "- just get it from JARVIS -" is the last he says before the door clicks shut and silences all sound. All but the sound of soft breathing behind him. 

Thor turns to find his brother's gaze cast down, eyes lidded and pale, and yet he knows he is watched. He steps forward, then pauses. Clasps his hands behind his back, and releases them. He finds himself at an unlooked for loss for words. He has always known what to say to Loki; he may not always have been right in what he said, but his brother's presence has never before struck him so dumb, rendered his thoughts so voiceless. 

"Brother," he begins. 

"I am not your brother," Loki snaps, heading coming up and green eyes flashing. "Didn't you hear?" he sneers, and Thor swallows. 

"Loki, I have told you time and again that none of that matters. You always have been my brother, and you always will be." Thor strides across the room and stops in front of the chair his brother has ensconced himself in. Thor knows he will try nothing for the moment, defeated as his is. 

Lok's neck is arched so that he can watch Thor, breaths thigh in his chest. He eyes flash with loathing as he stares up, and Thor finds his gaze forced away. He cannot bear to look, so he lowers himself to his knees and reaches out for Loki's hands.

||

"How long have you known this?" Thor knows his Father; he knows how he lies and knows that something of such import, such as the fact that _Thor's brother is alive_ , would be considered for some length of time before it ever occurred to Odin to tell his remaining son. Thor must swallow his bitterness and take what he is given. 

Odin says, "Long enough to come to a decision."

And Thor is nodding before he finishes speaking. "Yes, I have come to a decision also." He has been thinking for a long time; what would he do if he lost Loki, if Loki ran off and he couldn't find him, if Loki ever decided he'd had enough of Thor and simply left? 

"I will find my brother, and bring him back." That has always been his answer, and it always will be. Thor wonders what his Father's decision was, but he suppose he will never know. There is no other choice but this.

||

Thor knows exactly how short his temper is; he knows when it will snap and he will stop thinking about what he does. Loki has driven him almost to that point, slowly and steadily, with his lies and contrariness and inability to listen. So when Loki pulls his hands back, away from Thor, and folds them into his lap, Thor is surprised when he feels no anger, no loss of reason, and instead bites his lip to fight back the prick of tears in his eyes. 

Why can Loki not _listen_? It is so simple; the room is quiet, the entire tower is quiet as they wait for the city to recover and preparations to be made for Loki’s transport back to Asgard. Why cannot Loki _hear him_?

It is galling. Thor wishes their Mother was here – she always knew how to speak to them, make them see reason. 

In a fit of frustration (not anger, not even now), Thor reaches up. He slides his hands behind his brother’s neck and pulls his face down so that Loki is forced to look at him. 

“Well, brother?” he growls. “Do you love me no more?”

Loki’s eyes fly wide. His lips part and Thor takes great pleasure in having surprised his brother; it is a rare thing. 

Loki’s face turns still and cold, and he says, “That would be impossible, my dear Prince of Asgard, as I cannot ever have truly loved you. Our life together was a lie; how then can my love for you have been true?”

Thor hisses; his fingers dig into the bones of Loki’s jaw until his flinches and tries to push away. His hands come up to Thor’s shoulders and his breath shudders. 

||

Odin turns upon him fully then, and gazes upon his more foolish son, his braver son. He nods once. “Go, then. I see there will be no stopping you. But,” he says, halting Thor as he turns to return to his rooms and gather his things, fetch Mjolnir, “beware, my Son. Loki may be your brother, and we all may love him, but you must remember what he is.”

“Father!” Thor exclaims. “That is beneath you; for many years, you paid no more attention –“

Odin cuts him off with a slashed hand. “I do not speak of your brother’s heritage, for that means nothing. I speak of you brother’s cunning, his silver tongue and his… will to see a thing done, no matter the cost. He takes after me in that. Do not let him beguile you, my Prince. Once Loki has set his mind to a thing he will not be turned from this, and in this case he seeks to set as much distance between himself and Asgard as possible. You may have to resort to measures you belive unworthy of you.”

His Father steps forward and lays a hand – cold, and very steady – on Thor’s arm. “Do not shy from what needs be done. Bring you brother home.”

||

“There was a single lie in our lives, brother. It was not my lie or your lie, but our Father’s lie. Why should that come between us?”

“You do not understand.”

“I understand perfectly. You were surprised by the truth, and horrified by it. You were angered and you lost your sense. You are more like me than you wish to believe, and I felt just the same when I had to watch you fall, when I believed you dead.”

Loki’s gaze falls away from Thor’s, hoods itself and hides. “Why can you not hate me?” he whispers. 

A smile touches Thor’s lips as he looks up. “It is because I love you instead,” he says. 

Loki’s lips purse and he pulls back. Unwilling to hurt his brother (again), Thor lets him go. 

“Then what,” Loki says, raising a hand and pointing towards the table by the door, and the pile of items Tony had brought, “are those for? If you love me so much, I mean.” 

His tone grows snide and cutting and Thor, knowing what lies on the table, flushes.

||

It takes Thor all of moments to ready his things and return to the Bifrost. He does not tell the Warriors Three or Sif that he is leaving; not even his Mother knows he is going to find Loki. His Father will announce his departure when the time is right, he is sure. 

As Thor readies himself one last time, pausing next to his Father’s long shadow, Odin turns to him and hands Thor a scroll. Thor makes to open it, but his Father says, “Wait. That is not for you. Give this to a Midgardian you trust, who will forge these items in preparation for returning Loki here. These things will ease his passage.”

Thor looks down at the scroll, imagining all sorts of things, but he trusts Odin, trusts his Father, and so does not comment. He tucks the scroll into his belt and prepares himself for the leap into nothingness, across nothing and everything.

||

Thor pushes back and rolls to his feet. “Precautions,” he says, “Nothing more.”

Loki follows, surging from his seat and pressing close to Thor. “Really? Want to silence me, do you? Rip my voice from me and render me nothing?”

“No!”

|| 

Thor looks at the scroll just once, after Loki has dropped through the sky from Fury’s craft in that clear cage. He is still breathless and sore as he unrolls the scroll, hot anger burning within, and his lips twist as he realizes the _rightness_ of the cage his Father has designed for Loki.

Later, he gives the scroll to Tony Stark and asks him if he can create what is pictured. Stark’s eyebrow raises, but he says nothing except, “Yes.”

||

“ _You_ would beguile _me_?” Loki’s voice rages with outrage and condescension. “Did you think that by saying nice things, I would accept your bit eagerly? You will not cage me that way, _brother_.” 

Thor backs away. “I would not cage you at all.” He had been foolish to have these things made. He should not have listened to his Father. Loki would have come willingly had Thor only kept the scroll rolled and relied upon his words, his love. 

He reaches out, hands spread in a silent plea. Loki looks to the floor and the tension drains from him. When his gaze rises, he appears perfectly calm and at ease. He stares at Thor’s hands disdainfully. 

“You will have nothing from me,” he says, voice barely above a whisper. He begins to walk towards Thor, past him. “You will not have my love. You will not have my friendship or my assistance. You will not have my hatred. And you will not have my voice.”

He reaches out and lifts the gag from the pile of metal and Thor’s heart twists within his chest. “You will have nothing because I will be nothing,” he says. As he raises the contraption towards his face, Thor moves forward. 

“No! You don’t –“ he reaches out, and his hand brushes Loki’s cheek as the gag fits itself into place and the straps tighten. 

His breath whooshes out and he stares into Loki’s pained and eloquent gaze. He pulls his brother close and presses their foreheads together, pained to the utmost depths of his body. 

“Don’t ever say that. Ever. You are everything to me,” he whispers. 

“Everything.”


End file.
